The September 2008 letter comes from the Melbourne Newsletter >>> Here ...

Mahboba Rawi made a promise. That changed everything. “I used to ask myself the question: what is my part in the world?” Now she knows: “My part is to bring up the lost children of Afghanistan to be loving and peaceful.” Before starting the NGO Mahbobi's Promise it was always her dream to own a house in Australia. “The only dream I have now is to build a beautiful Orphanage in Kabul big enough to house two hundred children.”

The word promise actually takes its meaning from the Latin word promittere , where pro means before and mittere means to send . The word mission has the same root. On the journey towards Michaelmas we are reminded through the gospel readings, not once but twice, to wonder: Am I sent? What for? To whom? By whom? Who are my companions on the journey? And what was our promise?

Dag Hamarskjoeld writes: “I don't know who – or what – put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means not to look back, and to take no thought for the morrow. Led by the Ariadne's thread of my answer through the labyrinth of Life, I came to a time and place where I realized that the Way leads to a triumph which is a catas trophe, and to a catastrophe which is a triumph … As I continued along the Way, I learned, step by step, word by word, that behind every saying in the Gospels stands one man and one man's experience; also behind the prayer that the cup might pass from him and his promise to drink it; also behind each of the words fro m th e Cross .” (in Markings )

Each of us is one human being. Each of us can take a step and speak the word of promise. That changes everything.

Mahboba Rawi, founder of the NGO Mahboba's Promise and author of the book Mahboba's Promise will give a talk at our community on October 25 as part of the Suzani Exhibition. Come and be inspired!

Lisa Devine